Posts Tagged ‘Quantum Conundrum’

Murdered: Soul Suspect was about a ghost detective trying to solve his own murder, but there’s not a whole lot of mystery steaming off developer Airtight’s color-drained corpse. Recent games like Quantum Conundrum – while by no means bad – weren’t huge hits, there were layoffs, QC lead (and former Portal designer) Kim Swift took off, and Murdered never really built up much buzz. Times were tough all around, and it looks like Airtight wasn’t quite able to keep its head above water.

In the beginning, there was Quantum Conundrum, and it was… pretty decent, with occasional flashes of both brilliance and dimension-shattering frustration. However, in this era where games no longer come on tapes or frisbees, they are capable of producing new content from thin air – like a magician bending the fabric of reality to produce a bunny. And while Quantum Conundrum’s DLC won’t have any bunnies (that I know of), one of the two announced mini-expansions will center around Ike, who is somewhat bunny-like in stature. Meanwhile, the other pack, The Desmond Debacle, will be led by a drinking bird and feature “hours” of puzzle-solving. Beforehand, however, you’ll have to strain your brain to solve the diabolical Should-You-Buy-It Conundrum. Perhaps I can help you with that.

So Alec declared the wonderfully whimsical Kim Swift’s (which makes her sound like some kind of circus magician) Quantum Conundrum “that most maddening, saddening breed of videogame – the Almost Success.” But what does Alec know? Maybe he accidentally clicked on James Bond: Quantum of Solace or a quantum physics lecture instead. So clearly, the only solution is to take it for a test drive yourself. And now, you can do that with a freshly fluffy demo that’s emerged from Steam’s magical vapors. But, uh, you may not learn quite as much as you’re hoping.

I vowed solemnly to myself that I would offer my written opinion upon Quantum Conundrum without so much as mentioning Portal. “Alec old bean”, I bellowed at myself while brushing my teeth and drinking a large glass of whiskey in the shower, “it’s not terribly proper to forever perceive someone in the light of their previous achievements. You should treat this new game of physics puzzles from former Portal lead Kim Swift and her current studio Airtight Games as its own entity rather than in regard to how it compares to Valve’s non-combat first-person games. I say, would you like a scotch egg with that?”

When I left the shower to start actually playing Quantum Conundrum, it was near-instantly clear this promise to myself could not in good conscience be met.Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the final day of E3. Most attendees have died exhausted and alone, with only XXXL shirts and fliers for NOS energy drinks as bartering chips in their bid to enter the pearly gates of the great beyond. I shuffle into a tiny booth cubicle – technically for an appointment, but mostly in vain hope of discovering some hidden developer pillow mountain. Inside, I instead find Quantum Conundrum mastermind Kim Swift… excitedly chatting with Square Enix PR about Left 4 Dead, energized as someone who just woke up from being frozen in a block of ice for thousands of years.

It was pretty surprising at the time – given that she was coming off not only a grueling E3 but also an entire development cycle. But then, I suppose there’s a sort of giddy limit-defying elation in finally crossing the finish line. And, as Swift went on to tell me, she got to do it her way – even with a titan as large as Square Enix looming over the production. Which is kind of incredible, when you think about it. So then, how did all of this come about?

Too much or too little. It seems like game trailers can never show just enough. I’m dubbing it the Quantum Conundrum Conundrum in honor of today’s absolutely unhinged trailer for Kim Swift’s brain-twister. I mean, I suppose it’s understandable, given that Square and Airtight (Squaretight?) had to condense four dimensions‘ worth of stuff into one video. But goodness, there’s a lot going on here. Boxes fluffifying, safes swooping in meticulous, war-like formation, and images shifting every two seconds – as though powered by my web-browsing habits. It’s all a bit much. Watch the full thing after the break. Then re-watch it to figure out what was actually going on.

When John tried to unravel Quantum Conundrum he reported that there were several dimensions, including a heavy one, a gravity reversing one and another that slows down time. Those sit alongside (if dimensions sit or have sides) the fluffy dimension that has been shown in the previously released videos. I didn’t believe a word of Walker’s report of course. Why would he be traipsing around dimensions that the rest of us haven’t even laid eyes on? What gives him the right?

Sadly, a new video shows that there is indeed a dimension that slows down time more effectively than Uncle Boring McDullston’s slides from his annual fortnight long road trip around Milton Keynes’ grid system. John probably made a lucky guess.

You know what was rubbish? Star Trek: The Next Generation. I think I’ve seen every single episode. And how do I empirically know it was rubbish? Because every time John de Lancie showed up in it, playing the god-like brat Q, his glow of awesomeness shone a light on the pastel gloom that surrounded him. In a ship powered by Geordi’s sighing, motivated by Troi’s whinging, and kept in order by Picard’s tugging, not even the almost-quite-good Brent Spiner could rescue it from its maudlin Roddenberry-driven goodie-goodie nonsense. But Q – the moment he appeared on deck the sound of popping pomposity filled your ears. Oh, yes, sorry – John de Lancie has been signed up to provide voices for Kim “Portal” Swift’s Quantum Conundrum.

At GDC last week, I grabbed the opportunity to sit down and chat with Kim Swift, Portal co-creator and project lead on the forthcoming first-person puzzler, Quantum Conundrum. We discussed the inevitability of comparisons with her previous hit, the constraints of making a game on a tight budget, and why kids are better gamers than we’ll ever be.

On some level, your brain knows the right place to head toward when playing Quantum Conundrum. Created by the co-creator of Portal, despite certainly being a different game, the puzzles seem to stimulate that same lateral place that requires you enter into the reinterpretation of physics that inhabits the gaming world. Except this time, it’s a lot fluffier.

Beyond a couple of videos of creator Kim Swift playing Quantum Conundrum, details have been pretty quiet about the game from Airtight Games. Today we’ve received a load of fluff. Aha! A joke about PR. A bunch of new, extremely pink screenshots are below, along with some information about the fluffy dimension of the game.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s all drool over Kim Swift’s upcoming Quantum Conundrum, which looks like what a computer game would look like if Pixar made computer games. That’s just a fact rather than a wild, hastily decided upon and ill-conceived opinion based on eight minutes of footage shown at CES 2012 and narrated by Kim. Now that I mention it, I did just watch just such a video and decided that anyone who didn’t have a massive grin on their face for at least half of it was probably a pod person. Now, smile. I expect to see the rictus grin of a terrified corpse when I observe you all through my periscope momentarily.

When one of the original designers of Portal reveals a new game, it’s time to pay attention. Kim Swift, now of Airtight Games, has been chatting to Gamespot about her new project, Quantum Conundrum. Even the title should tell you that science remains high on the agenda. The game has you searching for your mad scientist uncle whose home, a gigantic mansion, has been converted into a series of perplexing science experiments. I don’t think there will be any neurotoxins this time around, though I have been wrong before when it comes to neurotoxins. It didn’t end well. Launch trailer and video with commentary by Kim below.